Do we really need to learn French and German?

12:00AM GMT 19 Feb 2001

SIR - With global travel so easy, Spanish, Portuguese or Japanese would seem better bets.

While in Thailand I noticed that the common language for most was English. The Germans, French and other Europeans conversed with their host and each other in English. For all other people the obvious second language is English, but for the English speaking world, what is our best second language?